Kusturica was born in
SarajevoSarajevo , the son of Murat Kusturica, a
journalist employed at Sarajevo's Secretariat of Information, and
Senka Numankadić, a court secretary, Emir grew up as the only child
of a secular
SerbSerb non-observant Muslim family in
SarajevoSarajevo , the
capital of PR Bosnia and
HerzegovinaHerzegovina , a constituent republic within
FPR Yugoslavia .

A lively youth, young Emir was by his own admission a borderline
delinquent while growing up in the
SarajevoSarajevo neighbourhood of Gorica.
Through his father's friendship with the well-known director Hajrudin
"Šiba" Krvavac , 17-year-old Emir got a small part in Krvavac's 1972
Walter Defends
SarajevoSarajevo , a partisan film funded by the Yugoslav
state.

CINEMATIC CAREER

In 1978, Kusturica graduated from the film school (FAMU) at the
Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, which is why he is sometimes
considered a part of the Prague film school , an informal group of
Yugoslav film directors who studied at FAMU and shared similar
influences and aesthetics. After graduating from FAMU, Kusturica began
directing made-for-TV short films in Yugoslavia.

He made his feature film debut in 1981 with Do You Remember Dolly
Bell? , a coming-of-age drama that won the prestigious
Silver Lion for
Best First Work at that year 's
Venice Film FestivalVenice Film Festival . The same year,
at the age of 27, he became lecturer at the newly established Academy
of Performing Arts in Sarajevo, a job that he performed until 1988. He
was also art director of Open Stage Obala (Otvorena scena Obala).

Kusturica's second feature film, When Father Was Away on Business
(1985), earned a Palme d\'Or at
CannesCannes and five Yugoslav movie awards,
as well as a nomination for an American Academy Award for Best Foreign
Film. Kusturica wrote the screenplays for both Do You Remember Dolly
Bell? and When Father Was Away on Business. In 1989 Kusturica earned
more accolades for
Time of the GypsiesTime of the Gypsies , a film about Romani culture
and the exploitation of their youth. In 1989 he was a member of the
jury at the
16th Moscow International Film Festival .

1990S

Kusturica continued to make highly regarded films into the next
decade, including his American debut, the absurdist comedy Arizona
Dream (1993). He won the Palme d\'Or for his black comedy epic,
Underground (1995), based upon a scenario of
Dušan KovačevićDušan Kovačević , a
noted Serbian playwright. He also taught Film Directing at Columbia
University's Graduate Film Division.

During the promotion of his autobiography in 2010, Kusturica was
asked why he thinks his cinematic style translates well in the West
when so many Eastern European, Yugoslav or Serbian authors never
managed to do the same:

“
My oeuvre was born while moving around from
SarajevoSarajevo to Prague via
Belgrade, at the exact spot where communism started to disintegrate.
While at the same time in parallel a mythical projection of that
downfall was being created with stuff like Karol Wojtyła being
elected as the Pope to steer things down that road. And I entered that
corridor like Chaplin entered the revolution and I came out through a
door where my movies that feature love-filled depictions of some of
these things happened to find a receptive audience. I underscore love
here because I was never anti-communist. Quite the contrary, some of
my deepest personal convictions were shaped and molded in that system
though I obviously don't put much from that system into practice when
it comes to my own life. So I sort of entered into that mythical
projection of the tear-down of communism with my first two feature
films, which communicated through poetic narrative, but without a
trace of hate, unlike say
Yugoslav Black Wave that actually
disqualified communism in every way possible. I on the other hand, out
of affection for my father who was a staunch communist and my family
that fought in
World War IIWorld War II on the Partisan side, extended that love
into those movies as well. And the West took to it because the West
isn't one big monolithic entity. I realize that to many ordinary
people in Serbia, the West is
Olli RehnOlli Rehn or some other similar fat and
balding EU bureaucrat, but fortunately there's more to it. Another
thing is this. When I submitted
When Father Was Away on Business to
the
Cannes Film FestivalCannes Film Festival back in 1985 it was one of 700 films the
selectors had to sift through and choose some dozen or so for the
competition program. When I did the same with Underground a decade
later it was one of 1,200 films. Nowadays, we're talking 2,500 to
3,000 films every year submitted at Cannes. So in that gargantuan
quantity, your quality really has to shine through. And for me quality
was fierce authenticity. So to recap, why do I think the West is
receptive to me? First and foremost, I got in at a good moment during
the tear-down of communism or more specifically the tear-down of
BolshevismBolshevism . And secondly, no less importantly, they respond to my
genuine commitment to the basic authentic motifs that have been
existing here in the Balkans for centuries.
”

In September 2012
Emir KusturicaEmir Kusturica accepted the offer to become the
head juror of the first Saint Petersburg International Film Festival .
During the festival Kusturica also performed for the residents and
guests of Saint Petersburg with his band "The No Smoking Orchestra"

During the last months of 2013, Kusturica started shooting a
documentary film on the life of the Uruguayan president
José MujicaJosé Mujica ,
whom he considers "the last hero of politics".

Kusturica currently acts as the president of the Ski Association of
Serbia.

This section of a biography of a living person DOES NOT INCLUDE ANY
REFERENCES OR SOURCES . Please help by adding reliable sources .
Contentious material about living people that is unsourced or poorly
sourced MUST BE REMOVED IMMEDIATELY.
Find sources: "Emir Kusturica" – news · newspapers · books ·
scholar · JSTOR (August 2014) (Learn how and when to remove this
template message )

In mid-1986, Kusturica, already an accomplished film director at the
time, started playing bass guitar in
Zabranjeno Pušenje , a Sarajevan
punk rock outfit that had been the main driving force behind the New
Primitivism movement. In addition to being on friendly terms with the
guys and admiring their work, Kusturica's inclusion in the group had
to do with the difficult situation
Zabranjeno Pušenje found itself in
following the political and media scandal caused by the verbal offence
committed by their frontman
Nele Karajlić .

The so-called 'Marshal affair' that played out throughout late 1984
and early 1985 severely limited the band's access to media, causing
its second album to sell poorly; additionally, three of the six
members left the group in light of its bleak commercial prospects.
Therefore, in 1986 as the band was still reeling from the scandal and
devising strategy for the future, the thinking behind bringing
Kusturica on board was that having the famous and celebrated film
director affiliated with
Zabranjeno Pušenje would help it get over
the media bans it faced.

Kusturica's contribution included playing bass on three track from
the band's third studio album
Pozdrav iz zemlje Safari as well as
composing the music for the "Probušeni dolar" track on the same
album. Furthermore, he directed the video for the track "Manijak",
which was deemed controversial, receiving a television ban due to
vague visual allusions to the
Agrokomerc Affair , yet another
political scandal brewing in Bosnia at the time. Still, with hit songs
like "Balada o Pišonji i Žugi", "Hadžija il bos", and "Dan
Republike", the band managed to regain its popularity and commercial
success. Though never fully involved in the band's day-to-day life,
Kusturica left
Zabranjeno Pušenje in 1988.

Kusturica returned to the group following the Black Cat, White Cat
film and the band's name changed to EMIR KUSTURICA and Underground .

Translations were published in Italy (translated by Alice
Parmeggiani) on 30 March 2011 under the title Dove sono in questa
storia ("Where am I in this Story"), in
FranceFrance by
JC Lattès on 6
April 2011 as Où suis-je dans cette histoire ?, and in Germany in
September 2011 as Der Tod ist ein unbestätigtes Gerücht. In 2012,
the book was published in Bulgaria as Cмъpттa e нeпoтвъpдeн
cлуx, in Greece as Κι εγώ πού είμαι σ' αυτή την
ιστορία;, in Romania as Unde sunt eu în toată povestea asta,
and in Hungary as Hogy jövök én a képbe?.

STO JADA

Kusturica's second book, a fictional novel Sto jada (Hundred Pains),
got released in
SerbiaSerbia on 24 April 2013 by
Novosti AD in the initial
printing of 35,000 copies. On 6 June, the second printing came out in
the circulation of 25,000. The book's translated form was released in
FranceFrance in January 2015 by
JC Lattès as Étranger dans le mariage.

During 2007, Kusturica and
Nele Karajlić prepared a punk opera, Time
of the Gypsies. The initial idea came five years earlier in 2002 from
Kusturica's collaborator Marc di Domenico while the support of the
Paris OperaParis Opera director
Gérard Mortier got the project rolling. Basing
the production on his eponymous 1988 film, Kusturica wrote the
libretto by adapting the story of the Gypsy youth from the Balkans
relocating to Italy in order to obtain money for his ill sister's
surgery. The director cast young Serbian folk singers Stevan
Anđelković and Milica Todorović in the roles of Perhan and Azra,
respectively, while the experienced Karajlić took the role of Ahmed
Đida. The music in the original movie had been composed by Goran
Bregović ; however, since Kusturica and he have not been on speaking
terms since the late 1990s, those songs couldn't be used. The all-new
score was composed by Dejan Sparavalo of The No Smoking Orchestra.

The premiere took place in June 2007, at the
Opéra BastilleOpéra Bastille in
Paris, to positive reviews. Following the vast open stage of
Bastille, the show was performed in smaller arenas. In March 2008, the
production was staged in Paris' Palais des congrès .

On 29 June 2012, the opera was staged in
Banja LukaBanja Luka at the City
Stadium , for the very first time under the open skies, with 10,000
people in attendance. This was followed with the July staging in
Cartagena, Spain , as part of La Mar de Músicas de Cartagena.

Since 2008,
DrvengradDrvengrad hosts the annual Küstendorf Film and Music
Festival , which showcases films and music from all around the world
as well as a competition programme for student short films . The
festival is known for not having a red carpet as well as none of the
popular Hollywood festival artifacts. Kusturica with Novak
Djokovic in
Andrićgrad

“
My father was an atheist and he always described himself as a Serb.
OK, maybe we were Muslim for 250 years, but we were Orthodox before
that and deep down we were always Serbs, religion cannot change that.
”

Despite the aforementioned conflict of religion, Kusturica refused to
see himself as either a Bosniak or
SerbSerb . Instead, he had continued to
insist that he was simply a Yugoslav .

When his mother was on her deathbed he wanted to find out his
ancestry and learnt that the origin of the Kusturica family stemmed
from two Orthodox Christian branches. An ancestor of his, who helped
build the Arslanagić bridge in the 18th century, hailed from Bileća
and the Babić family. According to the studies of geographer Jevto
Dedijer (1880–1918) in the
Bileća region (1902): the Kusturica
family lived in a čopor (grouped area, literally "pack ") in the
village of Plana ; they had eight houses next to the Kozjak family
(four houses), northwest across a field from the Avdić family (23
houses). In Granica , there was a family surnamed Kusturica which had
left Plana 80 years earlier.

According to the Avdići, their progenitor Avdija Krivokapić, an
Islamized Montenegrin, reportedly was honoured by the Sultan for his
military service and on the way home to
HerzegovinaHerzegovina , in
KyustendilKyustendil ,
he bought a gypsy and brought him to Plana; this gypsy was, according
to them, an ancestor of the Kusturica family. The story, however, as
was common, was motivated by traditional disputes of neighbouring
families regarding status in the village. According to Savo Pujić,
an ancestor was Hajdarbeg Kusturica who was a čauš (officer) who
lived in Volujak and was said to have been fair, having repurchased
Muslim slaves, protected Orthodox clergy and his subject peasants .
The name is derived from kustur, an Old Slavic word for dull knives,
sabres, etc., most often referring to sabres.

Regarding
Vladimir PutinVladimir Putin , he said in 2012: "If I was English I would
be very much against Putin. If I was American I would even fight with
him, but if I was Russian I would vote for him". Kusturica was
present at the Kremlin for Putin's third inauguration as president in
May 2012. He has expressed support for the 2014 Russian annexation of
Crimea .

Kusturica was awarded the
Order of St. Sava , First Class, for his
selfless care and presentation of the Serbian nation in the world, on
12 May 2012. On 4 November 2016 he received the Order of Friendship
from
Vladimir PutinVladimir Putin in Moscow. He communicated in Russian at the
event.

CONTROVERSY

WORK

Kusturica and his work have provoked controversy at home and abroad.
Underground , scripted by Dušan Kovačević, was partly financed by
state-owned Yugoslav television. It recounted the history of
Yugoslavia from
World War IIWorld War II until the conflict in the 1990s. Some
Bosnian and French critics claimed the film contained pro-Serb
propaganda.

In recognizing "Underground", the
CannesCannes jury thought it was
honouring a creator with a thriving imagination. In fact, it has
honoured a servile and flashy illustrator of criminal clichés. The
CannesCannes jury ... praised a version of the most hackneyed and deceitful
SerbSerb propaganda. The devil himself could not have conceived so cruel
an outrage against Bosnia, nor such a grotesque epilogue to Western
incompetence and frivolity.

I hope we share another point, which is – to be brutal – hatred
of Emir Kusturica. Underground is one of the most horrible films that
I've seen. What kind of Yugoslav society do you see in Kusturica's
Underground? A society where people fornicate, drink, fight – a kind
of eternal orgy.

SarajevoSarajevo -born novelist
Aleksandar HemonAleksandar Hemon , who emigrated to the
United States before the war, said Underground downplayed Serbian
atrocities by presenting "the Balkan war as a product of collective,
innate, savage madness."

Considering he proclaimed his dead father a Serb, and himself, Emir,
an Orthodox Christian, he easily chose his own in the Bosnian War. He
recognized them in Radovan Karadžić and Ratko Mladić. He wasn't
there to fire cannon barrages, but whenever he could, with his
artistic and media get-up he provided them an alibi for every killed
Muslim who didn't want to admit that he was originally an "Orthodox
Christian".

Kusturica sued Nikolaidis and the Monitor newspaper for civil damages
at the Supreme Court of Montenegro. In the end, Nikolaidis was ordered
to pay $6,490 to Kusturica for calling the famed director a "media
star of Milosevic's war machinery". The judge ruled that the evidence
was not credible enough. In the end Nikolaidis and the paper were
fined 12,000 euros for breaking the code of journalism by calling
Kusturica "stupid, ugly and corrupt" in the article.

The criticism of Kusturica was started by an organization called the
Turkish-Bosnian Cultural Federation as soon as Kusturica was announced
as a jury member. Turkish media reported that Kusturica repeatedly
downplayed the number of killed people and the rape of Muslim women
during the war. It was not clear when Kusturica was supposed to have
made those comments, but the daily
MilliyetMilliyet said Kusturica denied the
allegations.

Public sentiment in Turkey and in
SerbiaSerbia was such that a couple of
days after Kusturica left Turkey, there were news reports by Serbian
tabloids claiming that a mob of Turkish youths in
AntalyaAntalya physically
assaulting Swiss actor Michael Neuenschwander (in town to promote his
movie 180° – Wenn deine Welt plötzlich Kopf steht) because they
mistook him for Kusturica due to apparent physical resemblance between
the two. Later, Neuenschwander's press agent said there was no
physical assault and that Neuenschwander was verbally abused by a
small group.

Kusturica later commented on the incident:

“
I did receive a sincere apology from the mayor of
AntalyaAntalya Mustafa
Akaydın over what happened. Essentially, I became collateral damage
in the ongoing political fight between the central powers from the
ruling coalition in Istanbul and the municipal authorities in Antalya
where the local power is held by a social-democrat party . But
regardless of everything, this is completely unacceptable on a basic
level – when you're an invited guest somewhere, your hosts simply
cannot behave in this manner. And this run-in I had was with a part of
Turkish society, the part that consists of highly-evolved primitives.
I am not a politician and I'm not obliged to comment on and dissect
every crime or genocide around the world. And then I got very angry
and I told them if they're so sensitive about genocide it would be
much better for them to publicly condemn the genocide they committed
against the Armenian people , before having a go at me with accusatory
statements. I clearly condemned the crimes in Bosnia, but the
'problem' is that I condemned the crimes committed by all sides, which
makes me incompatible with the strategy they have for Bosnia.
”